Vijay v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. -
USDC, C.D. California, October 27, 2014:
District court declines to find that preemption warrants dismissal of all claims brought by actor in “Titanic,” but grants...more

Earlier this year the Seventh Circuit stated that “there is no judicial consensus on how to resolve conflicts between intellectual-property rights and free-speech rights.” Jordan v. Jewel Food Stores, Inc., 743 F.3d 509, 514...more

Dryer v. National Football League - USDC, D. Minn., October 10, 2014:
District court grants summary judgment in favor of NFL and against former professional football players who claimed that NFL’s use of video footage...more

On 13 May 2014 the District Court of Berlin (16 O 75/13) rejected a claim brought by a songwriter and a composer against a collecting society’s payout to music publishers. The claim was directed at a declaratory judgment that...more

The 9th Circuit giveth and the 9th Circuit taketh away. Last year, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit breathed life into copyright preemption as a defense to idea-submission claims under...more

Bakalar v Vavra - Second Circuit September 2, 2010

Bakalar v. Vavra was the first Holocaust-Era art case ever tried in a US federal court. The Second Circuit determined that New York, rather than Swiss law, should apply to a case where Fritz Grunbaum, a prisoner who was...more

Montz v. Pilgrim Films & Television, Inc., et al.
The Ninth Circuit last week issued its first published opinion regarding the scope of copyright preemption of implied contract and confidence claims since its controversial...more

The goal of this paper is to (i) discuss the tensions between the right to publicity, Intellectual Property law and the First Amendment, while also providing a brief background on the development and evolution of the right to...more